Day 3 began with breakfast at Starbucks (They are everywhere).  Although Mom asked me to order green tea, she received Earl Grey - clearly I haven't yet mastered my colors, at least not before my morning coffee.  We were doing just fine until we looked for the exit and Mom walked right into the glass door (yes like the birds in the Windex commercials).  We (Mom) entertained several customers having their morning coffee.

Notice the very clean windows at this Starbucks

We went looking for an ATM (I'm afraid of the fees that are going to be charged), and finally found one after adding a few more miles to our boots.  A nice little brisk morning walk in the 14 degree weather.  Although we were able to get a few more photos of St. Basil's without a big crowd.  

Sarah (not photoshopped) at St. Basil's

After our photo op, we went to the Kazan Cathedral in red square.  We were fortunate enough to walk in as a service was being conducted.  I find Russian Orthodox cathedrals particularly interesting because each one is different but all still follow the same template.  Each cathedral has an iconostisis, which is basically a wall between where the general public comes to pray (the temporal world) and where the priests worship (the spiritual).  Mom couldn't believe there wasn't a place for anyone to sit :)  (In my defense, I find it interesting that all other cathedrals we have visited in Europe and the US have a place for the congregants to sit - perhaps it's my age showing -- always looking a seat)

Kazan Cathedral 

We had planned on seeing a couple of other museums which turned out to be closed on Tuesdays so we decided to visit the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts instead.  What a phenomenal building - I was impressed before we even walked in the door.  I didn't think I could feel any smaller than I did standing next to the Tsar Bell until I walked up the stairs to the museum.

Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts

For some reason (unknown to us) we were able to take photos in most of the exhibit rooms at this museum.  So we've included a few:

Iranian Pedestal

Art from the Northern Black Sea Region

Donatello  Plaster Cast

Sarcophagus 

Ancient Greek Hall

Leaving the Museum

As we were walking back to our hotel we discovered an "Irish Pub".  We were excited to find a place where we might be able read the menu (although, we actually haven't had any trouble).  It was set up in a cafe style for a young hip crowd (Sarah fit the description).  The hostess was very pleasant, but after we were seated the waitress would not wait on us.  Oh well, we found it particularly funny that the only place we've had trouble getting served, was in an Irish Pub (although we noticed menu didn't have any
Guinness, so how Irish can it  be? ).

We ended the evening with an extraordinary concert at the Moscow Conservatory.  We were able to see a piano performance by one their professors performing Schumann and Tchaikovsky!  I (Tammy) was especially excited to hear pieces by Tchaikovsky performed by a professor who teaches at the school where he once taught. We couldn't get over the number of people who were bringing flowers, until we realized they were clearly students of the professor.  Even Sarah who often gets bored with long performances was impressed and would have sat through more.   She almost got a new coat on the way out.  The lady checking the coats tried to give her a different one ....  good thing it wasn't one of those long fur coats, otherwise she would have thought twice about spending another 10 minutes trying to figure out how to describe what her coat looks like in Russian.  Glad she got her colors straight this time -- guess that morning coffee helped.